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Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

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  • Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

    It's something I was notorious for as a kid, but when I moved away from home, I decided paper towels were an expense I could do without. That lasted more than fifteen years, really. Now, lately, I've been keeping paper towels in my kitchen, and I can't believe how many I use up.

    I reuse a lot of them for sure, drying them out when all they soaked up was clean water and then using them again, but man. I'm very embarrassed about this.
    But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
    GrouchyTeacher.com

  • #2
    Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

    Theres nothing wrong with being clean,and there cheap. I think they clean things up eaiser than cloth towels. peace!

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    • #3
      Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

      Actually, Scriv, you're better off using the paper towels if you can afford them (and a rag is better than a sponge) to clean your kitchen. Here's why.

      Miulang
      "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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      • #4
        Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

        We have three kids, and everyone in the house is a klutz, so I imagine we're also on the upper end of the paper towel consumption curve. We buy the huge bales at Costco.

        I guess I feel a little guilty, too... but we ain't just wiping dust or anything. Each paper towel meets its end fighting a valiant battle against a genuine mess.

        But I'm actually intrigued by the idea of "recycling" paper towels (or washing paper plates, or...). My grandmother even recycled Ziploc and sandwich bags. It just seemed icky to me, even though well intentioned (and understandable given her generation -- we all could stand to be less wasteful, I know).

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        • #5
          Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

          I have a habit, that I got from my dad, of tearing only the corner of the paper towel off of the roll when I need some. It's irrationally frugal and makes me look like, I dunno, like an old nisei man who grew up in the Depression.

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          • #6
            Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

            When it's on sale, we usually buy the BOUNTY "Select a Size" paper towels, which are perforated every 4" or so, instead of the standard 12" sheet. So you can tear sections to size, based on the mess you need to wipe up.

            Works great. Most times I only need that 4" strip to wipe a little coffee or jelly splatter on the counter. At least I never feel guilty of wasting a whole sheet for a small mess.
            sigpic The Tasty Island

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            • #7
              Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

              Pomai, I love those 'select a size' rolls! We get those if we're between Costco raids. And Glen, I hear you on the 'tearing off bits' too. Corners, hand-sized scraps... I do the same, in some small attempt to conserve, leaving us with paper towel rolls that look like they were attacked by small animals.

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              • #8
                Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                Paper towels - just another item in the compost to me.
                FutureNewsNetwork.com
                Energy answers are already here.

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                • #9
                  Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                  My life would be a mess without paper towels. Ever since I took a culinary course at KCC and learned about infrared investigations of germs throughout the kitchen and bathrooms, papertowels are a requirement. I, too, buy them by the baleful at the big boxes! So everytime I go in the kitchen to wash my hands, I dry them with a paper towel. But I leave that paper towel to dry, spread out and waiting for the next time. I appreciate how patient my husband is about this. What I think is indicative of my problem, Scrivener, is that if a spill or something needs to be wiped up before I'm ready to let that particular paper towel go, I am bummed. Those towels that are a little damp are just great for wiping off the ceramic stove top, the refrigerator door, the white cabinets. I feel like if a paper towel doesn't experience multitasking, then it wasn't exploited fully enough. They are perfect for wiping out berry-flavored kiddie toothpaste out of the kids' sink, wiping down a couple of mirrors or glass table tops, etc.
                  Aloha from Lavagal

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                  • #10
                    Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                    I'm a over-normal paper towel user too. I buy my paper towels from Costco also--and there's only ONE of me. Admittedly I have an entire closet devoted soley to storing paper towels and toilet paper products from Costco. It's kinda funny to open a closet in the living room and be confronted with row after row of white products, I think, but when ya live in a 1BR condo and still insist at shopping at Costo...well, those bulk items gotta go somwhere! You should see the trunk of my car--that's where I store my bottled water and Mountain Dew. Did you know that Mt. Dew is one of the few carbonated beverages that won't explode in the Hawaiian sun after being warmed in a trunk? I am sure that keeping the bottled water in my car makes things leach out of the plastic, but I don't care. I figure I'm due for cancer anyway after a lifetime of eating microwave food full of preservatives.

                    I have an unnatural fear or running out of three things, toilet paper and contact lens solution and paper towels, so I always have TONS of the stuff on hand at all times. When I get down to only one spare contact lens solution bottle or one paper towel roll or FOUR toilet paper rolls, it's a Costco trip emergency, stat!)

                    Whenever I clean, I use a paper towel instead of sponges/cloth, with maybe one or two exceptions. It's just more sanitary. I also tend to use them as plates, since it means one less plate to wash. This habit of using paper towels as plates came about in college when I lived in a house with three other girls--none of them would ever do the dishes after they cooked, so we'd run out of dishes. The sad thing was we had a dishwasher too (I grew up not using one at home, so I was reluctant to learn to use the one we had in college, for some reason). All of us roommates had the attitude that if we didn't make the mess, we didn't have to clean it up. I didn't cook, just lived on microwaveable food and sandwiches (just as I do now) so with no dishes around, I'd make everything on paper towels and utilize my stashed collection of plastic utensils, rather than wash a plate and utensil that I felt weren't my responsibility to wash anyway. (I still have to force myself now to use a plate, lol). How sad is that?

                    Like another user, I also tend to tear off small pieces of the paper towel roll--my boyfriend, who gets his paper towels from the Commisary, gets the ones where you can tear off half-sheets--but you can't buy those at bulk at Costco, unfortunately. I rarely reuse my papertowels, though...
                    Last edited by AbsolutChaos; April 17, 2006, 10:41 AM.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                      We have 2 dogs, one old and one 7 months old, and one 6 yr. old human female. What more can I say?

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                      • #12
                        Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                        A Costco question...
                        I've never purchased PT and TP from Costco 'cuz I don't have enough storage space. However I remember a friend telling me years ago that these products weren't that great of a buy at Costco based on price per unit or sheet. Are these products a big money saver at Costco now?

                        I go along with the others on the 'select a size' type of PT. I believe there is more than one brand marketing that concept now.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                          I generally buy the "brand name" stuff (e.g., Charmin and Bravo) from Costco and not the Kirkland brand because I like the feel of the brand name paper products. Sometimes you can get a better deal at places like WM (except I don't go to WM unless I get a gift card as a present) and sometimes a local supermarket might have a sale, but you can never figure out when those sales happen, so for consistency's sake, I just go to Costco and buy those 5-year quantities. Fortunately, they don't have expiration dates and will only deteriorate if I have a flood in my stoage unit before I can actually use them.

                          Miulang
                          Last edited by Miulang; April 17, 2006, 08:32 PM.
                          "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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                          • #14
                            Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                            Like a nursing teacher once said "we're nurses, not enviromentalists" (those were his exact words). That came after we learned how to use as much paper towels as we could to dry our hands (after washing them for 10 seconds).
                            How'd I get so white and nerdy?

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                            • #15
                              Re: Confession: I Use Too Many Paper Towels

                              Originally posted by pzarquon
                              I guess I feel a little guilty, too... but we ain't just wiping dust or anything. Each paper towel meets its end fighting a valiant battle against a genuine mess.
                              Here, here. Clapping hands in agreement.

                              Why do we use them? Because they are there!
                              Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!

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